jfk and plymouth day

instead of going somewhere for labor day weekend we decided to do little day trips instead to help me get things crossed off my summer bucket list (i got so close to crossing everything off!)

friday we decided to head the jfk museum and plymouth plantation because on this day and this day only they were both freeeeeeee

i love free.

the museum was cool. i really liked john f. until my own john started telling me what a dirtbag he was to jaqueline. the museum made it seem like they had this perfect marriage when in reality he was just sleeping with everyone he could. i hate him for this. i think i love her for the way she handled it or i think she is dumb..i can't decide. regardless, i enjoyed learning all about his election and seeing those buttons and the picture above of him thoroughly enjoying watching his child do a hand stand haha.

afterwards we went to a random town to grab some phad thai. (i added the h for you melissa!)

i liked the orange/green/brown decor and also when john and i don't look the same size hahahaha

heyooo what the heck just happened?!

WELCOME TO THE 17TH CENTURY!!

guys. mom. i didn't realize that the pilgrims landed in massachusetts until like two weeks before this trip happened. i really didn't pay attention in american history because i get these fun surprises all the time! i tell myself it is better this way. 

so this plantation was an absolute trip. i loved every 1620 second of it.

creepiest man in the white hating me taking this picture through the window above

one of my better self-timed photos minus cutting off john's head

the above scene seems super realistic, especially the lady taking a picture with her iPad. people have got to stop doing that (except for you dad - you keep doing it all you want!)

we took a nice walk by a river or maybe the ocean? and then came to the indian section of our experience. 

while everyone else felt kind of creeped out this girl above loved all of the dead animals lying around everywhere 

then we headed over to parts that john liked to look at 

and then i loved this goat and it's hot pink collar

and this black collared one

and then look what it is! the mayflower! (II)

i loved this so much.

notice i didn't really say anything about the mayflower II because there really wasn't anything to say. 

it was kind of cool but mostly lame. way pretty location though!

john not only let me have ice-cream but also took me to a candy store where we saw red hots (first time i've seen them on the east coast) and fake cigarrettes (childhood anyone?) which both had to be bought. in fact, that boy bought me every box of red hots they had and earned major points by doing so. 

we heard that plymouth rock was small but i don't think we realized just how small it was. 

this picture was a direct result of overhearing the man next to me say (as he was taking a picture of it) "that is plymouth rock? this is bull shit". hahahah i was so caught off guard and maybe for that reason it was one of the more funny moments of my life. 

before heading back to boston we took a stroll around downtown plymouth and found this very favorite street of mine that i would drive an hour+ just to walk by again. 

i loved this day and i guess this is why i blog, to remember the best days because i kind of forgot all about it until writing this post! haha

birthday weeeeeeek

started out right with some nice facetime with my favorite frei's

(brynne even had her happy birthday sweatshirt on! which was probably just a coincidence but i like to think it was on purpose)

boston began warming up again and blossoms looked great on the trees and on the ground

i began my first full week of work, enjoyed the company bought mandarin oranges, and my new birthday earbuds from thoughtful christine! small eared girls unite. 

i went buck wild on the %50 off easter candy sale 

(and then bought a bunch of other junk which made me feel really good about myself)

the weather threatened to be sad again but got happy again pretty quickly

(can you tell that is the same tree? maybe the different angles have ruined the visual i'm trying to create)

i decided to randomly reconnect with my long lost elementary/junior high/sophomore year crush logan fast. side note: i wish someone would have told me in third grade he liked boys..that is definitely ten years of my life i'll never get back!

friday as i was getting on the subway i saw "april 13th" on the screen and i panicked. i feel like this happens every year. the day before my birthday i realize that i'm never going to be [insert the age i am at that time] ever again and i think about all the things i wanted to do that year that didn't happen or all the things that did happen that i wish hadn't and i get a bad case of the sads. luckily this was remedied fairly quickly as i sat down and saw the handy work of someone on the door inside the subway. i giggled right out loud i think. 

i am thirteen. 

after work i received this thoughtful little email from sister terry!

 i'd like to think this was the beginning of a very successful birthday weekend. 

john was sweet to humor me and take me to riverdance! so many childhood fantasies came true that night. some moments were a little iffy/awesome (depending on how you look at it) i'll admit, but overall it was a nice time. 

afterwards we watched singing in the rain while eating ice cream with grandma moon's hot fudge sauce (that i made and didn't ruin!). i called my mom to see when i was really born and she said it was some time around 1 pm on the 14th. this relieved some of my stress because i technically wasn't really turning 25 until like 1pm the next day! i felt great that i still had a good 12 hours to be 24. maybe this is a good time to tell you that i get anxiety to be a year older with every birthday i have..so this is nothing abnormal. 

the next morning i handpicked my favorite boy friend, roommate friend, and ward friend to travel back in time with me to some revolutionary war reenactments. (does it surprise you that this is what i chose to do on my birthday? if it does, it shouldn't) turns out i didn't really know where we were going so i accidentally told them to go to what turned out to be some sort of petting zoo for children/birthday party for a little boy. we laughed and laughed and felt like such pedophiles. 

after driving and driving and driving (and stopping to climb that tree for a minute) we finally found us some red coats! 

i creeped on those colonials so hard

jackpot!

this really was such a great afternoon with all of our friends! they were all so nice and just as thrilled as i was that it was my birthday. as stressed as birthdays make me - when the day comes i milk it for all it's worth and celebrate so hard. 

happy birthday to ME

after finally finding where everything was we realized we probably needed to go to eat something and get ready for our temple service assignment so we actually didn't see the reenactment but i still think our morning was very successful. my birthday could have ended at 2 pm and i would have felt satisfied. 

luckily, it really wasn't over so we went and ate at my new favorite place "A @time"! best thai food ever and only a mile from my house. while they were making our food we headed over to the russian store across the street and bought some chocolate. i have yet to eat that thing but i'm sure it is delicious.

a

look how happy we all are! 

that is what pad thai/drunken noodles/curry does to people. it makes them happy. 

something else that made me happy were all these surprise packages from people! i loved them all and feel so blessed to have such sweet and thoughtful people in my life. 

i love this tree at the temple. since we cant really take pictures inside these two photos above will represent that part of our day. the first one was taken as we arrived at 4pm and the other one was taken at about 8pm when we left. in those four hours we helped in the cafeteria and the laundry. i was so happy maren and john consented to sign up, i had so much fun with them and felt happy to be in my favorite boston place with some of my favorite boston people. 

my only other request on this day of birth was to head to little italy and get cannoli's so that is exactly what we did afterwards. CANNOLI IS SO GOOD. i just want to eat them every. single. day. 

okay so i guess i had one more request. i really wanted grace to have her baby on my birthday and guess what? SHE DID. so now little alta and i are birthday twins and i couldn't be more happy about it.

the weekend ended with *trying to face time with the whole fam at their monthly fhe. it didn't really work very well and i think we called each other about 15 times but it was still so good to see them all. i love my family, i love my utah friends, i love my boston friends, i love the fact that i've had a really good 24 years and that i have the opportunity to have many more! 

and that concludes my birthday week. thank you for reading.